Think Jonathan Tropper meets Little Miss Sunshine.
When a Minnesota father of three awakens his children late in the night with news that their mother has left him and is bound for California, they set off on a hilarious, emotionally charged cross-country road trip to find her. That trip is just the beginning; it takes another decade for the mystery of what really happened to be revealed—and for the healing to begin. Odd One Out traces this compelling story in three parts, told from three points of view, and unravels the chain of events that forever changes this unconventional, brilliant, damaged, and loving family.
A literal and emotional mystery about a gifted, eccentric Minnesota family navigating a family crisis with humor and passion.
"Quinton Skinner is like a miner, digging deep into the lives of one family for treasure, and offering it up in lyrical and graceful prose. The characters are endearing and maddening, funny and profane, tender and hopeful-and in Odd One Out, the reader is given both a unique family story and a universal one."
- Lorna Landvik, author of Once in a Blue Moon Lodge
"Quinton Skinner has written a tragic, antic, unhinged domestic drama filled with pratfalls, puke, and dysfunction galore. Also, it's funny. You know, just like family. Odd One Out is a delight."
- Christopher Noxon, author of Plus One
"A philosophy-spouting father drags his three children across the country in a junk food-fueled search for his missing wife... a family drama exploring bonds that hold parents to children and siblings to one another?. The bittersweet conclusion is just right."
-Pioneer Press
"Wry... compelling... it gains in depth as the family members uncover the mysterious truths of the people they thought they knew best."
- City Pages
"The novel's first of three sections follows a young family stuck improvising an answer to two questions (both posed with all the decorum of a midnight break-in): Where did Mom go? And why did she leave? While the father takes it poorly-existentially, really-his kids, each precocious in a different color, fashion their own terms of understanding. Because, as Skinner shows, all kids eventually have to realize that their parents are just people."
-Minnesota Monthly
